Wednesday, September 24, 2008

The Women's Professional Racquetball Organization's (WPRO) Mexico Open draw is now on their website, and there are some major players in the draw who were absent from the Outback Steakhouse Blast It! event in Fayetteville two weeks ago.

Kristen Bellows and Paola Longoria, seeded 5th and 7th, respectively, will both be making their first appearances on the WPRO tour this season, but perhaps the most interesting addition is Jackie Paraiso, who's one of the best women's racquetball players ever, and is the current World Champion in doubles with Aimee Ruiz.

Paraiso is seeded 18th, and will play against Mexican veteran Susy Acosta in the first round, and the winner will play Cheryl Gudinas-Holmes. Either will be a tough match for Gudinas-Holmes. Then, if she wins that match, there's the possibility that Gudinas-Holmes will face Longoria in the quarter-finals.

Thus, the additions to the draw clearly make it a tougher road for Gudinas-Holmes to repeat her finals appearance from two weeks ago.

The top half of the draw is not so different from Fayettevile, although Bellows - rather than Adrienne Fisher, who's now on the bottom half of the draw - slots in as the potential quarter final opponent against Angela Grisar.

Grisar though could have a tough first match, as she'll potentially face Jennifer Saunders, who almost knocked off WPRO #1 Rhonda Rajsich two weeks ago, and was a bronze medalist at the World Championships last month in Ireland.

Our Prediction

We were going to predict Rajsich to run her tournament winning streak to six prior to seeing the draw. But having seen the draw, we're thinking it even more likely that Rajsich will come out on top in Tijuana.

You, dear Readers, still have some time to make your predictions for the Mexico Open winner. Given these significant additions to the draw, perhaps the predictions of "Another player" winning the tournament will increase.